For the year, the S&P 500 dropped 38.5 per cent, marking its worst run since a marginally higher drop of 38.6 per cent in 1937. The Dow lost 33.8 per cent, its worst annual decline since the index fell 52.7 per cent in 1931.

“It was beyond most people’s comprehension that such a thing could happen,” said Marc Pado, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. “No one thought the short-term could be this destructive.”

The financial sector was the worst performing, down 57 per cent overall, in a year in which several institutions ended up part-owned by the state to prevent a collapse of the system.

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(ACNS) But it set me thinking – what would our life be like if we really believed that our wealth, our treasure, was our fellow-human beings? Religious faith points to a God who takes most seriously and values most extravagantly the people who often look least productive or successful- as if none of us could really be said to be doing well unless these people were secure.

And as we look around in our own country as well as worldwide, this should trigger some hard questions ”“ whether we think of child soldiers in Africa or street children in Latin America, or of children in our midst here who are damaged by poverty, family instability and abuse, street violence and so much else. Children need to be taken seriously, not just as tomorrow’s adults but as fellow-inhabitants of the globe today, growing human beings whom we approach with respect and patience and from whom we ought to learn.

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An Elm Grove church says it will leave the U.S. Episcopal Church to join a rival, more conservative province.

Wednesday’s announcement makes St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church the first Wisconsin congregation to break with the Episcopal Church since the new Anglican Church in North America formed earlier this month.

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Update: The parish mission statement may be found here.

If I’m serious about keeping my New Year’s resolutions in 2009, should I add another one? Should the to-do list include, “Start going to church”?

This is an awkward question for a heathen to contemplate, but I felt obliged to raise it with Michael McCullough after reading his report in the upcoming issue of the Psychological Bulletin. He and a fellow psychologist at the University of Miami, Brian Willoughby, have reviewed eight decades of research and concluded that religious belief and piety promote self-control.

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Jolene Siana, a writer in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, plans to spend time with friends at their homes rather than in wine bars, bringing a $12 bottle rather than blowing $12 on a glass. Nelson Murphy, a maintenance worker at a Manhattan hospital, is determined that 2009 will be the year he finally gives up smoking ”” it is bad for his health, and, at $9 a pack, his wallet.

And Felicia Jackson, 23, is promising herself a healthier lifestyle ”” physically and financially. She will take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to work instead of frequenting McDonald’s for lunch (and sometimes breakfast), and walk to and from her subway stop instead of hopping in a town car.

“It’s $5 each way, so that’s $50 a week,” said Ms. Jackson, who lives in Brooklyn and works at Paragon Sports in Union Square. “I’m going to make a tighter budget this year with the economy the way it is.”

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